Of Mice and Men
by Trake
Summary: AU!Iruka was killed by Kyuubi when he raged against Konoha. Naruto, having grown up with no light in his life at all, drifts towards the path of evil. Although I'm not willing to spoil the whole plot here, I will say that Naruto joins Akatsuki. R
1. Introduction to Evil

Hey all, it's Trake. Been awhile since I wrote some stuff, I've mostly been reading around, see what I like, see what I want that isn't there. I've mostly been reading 100K+ word stories, action/adventure deciding how to portray everyone…stuff like that. I plan to make this a long story, but I'll definitely finish it. I have a lot of stuff going on right now, but I think I can make it work. Anyways, here's some stuff you should know before reading.

Disclaimer: Yeah, so Naruto doesn't belong to me, and I don't believe in making up characters so nothing will belong to me. In the rare chance that I make up any jutsus I don't really plan on copyrighting them or anything like that, they're just words go right ahead with them.

Summary: This is an AU story, in which an event taking place 13 years or so before the anime/manga changes everything: Iruka is killed with his parents by Kyuubi. Naruto, left without any source of light in his life turns to hate and power. Some stuff happens, you'll see. Since I kept searching for it under summary and couldn't find any, I'll say it as a spoiler: Naruto joins Akatsuki. You'll just have to read for more details.

_Reviewers_. I am not going to have one of those lame "Review reply" things here. I thank every single reviewer I get right now. Thanks. If you have a big important question, I'll answer, but if it's like "Why does Naruto dodge all of those kunai when he's running from that guy trying to kill him?" I don't plan on answering. However, I will commend you're good grammar.

FINAL AUTHOR NOTE! I appreciate beta readers, but I am in no need! If you really see a huge grammar mistake or plot error or typo, then send it in the review or an e-mail or something. I don't care that I missed a comma in line 482; I really don't. If that offends you I am sorry. Grammar is important to me, but I don't have time to check every little thing. Anyways, on to the story. I hope you all want to know that my cat is currently purring into my leg.

Also, if I spell something like chuunin differently then someone else spells it, or how you spell it, I'm sorry, but that's the way how I think it is or should be spelled, and I'm going to continue like that. Take that you people who spell jounin junin!

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"…Uchiha Sasuke, pass. Uzumaki Naruto, fail. Yamanaka Ino, pass. That is everyone, to those who passed congratulations! For those who failed, try harder and come back next semester. You are all free to go. Anyone who passed, report here tomorrow at 0700 hours. Be prompt, it is unbefitting of a ninja to be late. Have a nice day." A white haired man in a chuunin vest wearing his forehead protector straight and proud across his forehead got up, pushed his chair in, and walked out the door with a disorderly row of young kids. He stopped for a second, and looked at them, before locking his eyes on a small boy.

This particular young boy was, is, and will always be Uzumaki Naruto, the sad, friendless kid on the block. He laid his head on his desk, but kept his eyes staring at the front board. As he got up, his bright orange jump suit wrinkled along in the same solemn way that he did. A single tear welled up in his bright azure eye, but he wiped it away quickly before getting up and following the rest of the class out the door. If this were any other kid, everyone would feel sorry for him and treat him with kindness, but that was not the case. Uzumaki Naruto was considered a demon by nearly everyone in his whole village, ninja and commoner alike. Even the white haired chuunin looked at him with distaste in his eyes, before flashing an evil smirk and walking his way.

"What do you want, Mizuki-sensei?" asked Naruto. Mizuki's face was of kind eyes and a warm smile, but inside he was loathing at the small academy student.

"Naruto, this is the third time you've failed, but I have a solution. In the Hokage's mansion in the center of Konoha there is a forbidden scroll with this symbol on it," Mizuki gave Naruto a small piece of paper on it with a kanji mark, "The Hokage wants you to steal it while it is under guard by low-rank ninja without them finding out. If you can get it to the shack just to the north of the village by sundown, you will become a genin. Do you understand?" Mizuki bent down to Naruto's level and looked him straight in the eye.

"I understand mostly, but why would you do that? If I can't do a simple Bunshin no Jutsu, I'm a worthless ninja," Naruto looked straight at the floor while he said that, and his prized goggles were all Mizuki could see apart from his bright yellow hair.

"Well, you see not all ninja's are meant for combat. Now, you aren't too bad at taijutsu, but you're nowhere near Kiba or Sasuke's level, and everything else is abysmal at best. Because of this, some ninjas go into the information gathering profession. If this scroll was important enemy information and you could get it without being caught, it would be incredibly useful. The Hokage wants to know if you have that ability," Mizuki finished in a tone that ended the conversation before Naruto could respond. Naruto closed his mouth and simply nodded, and they both went their separate ways to spend the rest of their afternoons in peace.

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1800 hours

Naruto snuck past the sleeping chuunin at the stairway and crept through a hole in the stairwell to arrive in the scroll room. Inside the scroll room, another chuunin watched the door intently, but the hole had lead Naruto into the cubby (those square scroll storage spaces) wall, and he was hidden behind a pile of small scrolls. After the not-so-easy task of trying to pick out the right scroll without alerting the guard, Naruto found what he was looking for, grabbed the scroll, and left the way he came.

'That was too easy, but I guess the Hokage would lower security to give me a fighting chance. Luckily I am still small enough to fit through that secret hole.' Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by movement in the stairwell directly above him. He would have moved but he immediately recognized the voice of the disturbance.

"I hope Mizuki doesn't try anything stupid tonight. We had assumptions he'd try to steal the scroll tonight, since most of the jounins are away, but if he does we'll catch him and the elders will have him exiled from Konoha for sure, if not executed," The mystery voice didn't mention it's own name, but Naruto knew at once that it was Hitake Kakashi, a jounin and former ANBU. Naruto wasn't a stalker by any means, but Kakashi was a legend, and Naruto saw him from time to time near the park, talking to himself. Naruto knew what it meant, and he knew he was not guilty of anything, yet from past experience he knew if he was caught even near anything wrong, no story, whether it is true or not, would get him free.

That instant a huge decision was met and made for Naruto, as he strapped the scroll to his back and jumped out the window in the stairwell, running like there was no tomorrow. Truth to be told, if Naruto could not escape from the ninjas that were about to be trailing him, tomorrow would only be a thing of dreams for the young shinobi, and nothing elevated a kid's escaping skill than having his life on the line.

Naturally, Naruto ran, skipped, jumped, slid, dove and glided over under or around any obstacle that stood in his way, heading to an area of the Konoha border walls he knew very well. Position a perfect distance from Ichiraku Ramen and the main gate was a small part of the wall that was cracked near the bottom. Now, this crack would normally be nothing as it only opened a tunnel about an inch tall and about 5 inches wide to the opposite side. However, Naruto had dug a thin canal big enough for only himself beneath the crack. As he reached, he scooted his body through the two meters of tunnel to pop out the other side, all the while pushing the scroll ahead of him.

Once here, he faced two more decisions. Firstly, he has just heard that Mizuki wanted the scroll for selfish reasons. Should he still give it to him, or should he run somewhere else with it? Secondly, every ninja in all of Konoha was undoubtedly looking for him. Should he go slow and try to cover up his trail, or should he just run as fast as he can, for as long as he can?

For the first decision, he immediately decided that he would never help Mizuki out, for he was the reason why Naruto was in this mess to begin with. For the second, Naruto decided his stealth skills and tracking skills were so pathetic it wouldn't matter even if he did try to cover his tracks. With both of these decision in mind, he set a straight-shot course north-west to Iwagakure in the land of earth.

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Yeah, so, it's sort of forward…but whatever, and by the way I'm not going to do any like "6 years later now Naruto owned everything" huge time skips. Maybe like, "One month later, and Naruto finally mastered his jutsu" but that's as far as I'll get. I plan to go through everything step by step. Anyways, back to the story.

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Opening his eyes, Naruto saw the glimmering sun through the branches of the trees. Or, rather, that's what he should have seen. Instead he saw the white ceiling of a room unknown to him. Naruto sat up, and looked around. He saw a plain, white room, with no decorations or other furniture, and a window that over looked a field. Seeing that the window was open, he decided the door was unlocked, and he got up to see what was beyond it. Before he could get a foot away from his bed, the door opened and Naruto saw the man who had brought him here.

"Hey kid, you finally woke up. My name's Soujuro, by the way," The man introduced. Soujuro was at least six foot tall, probably a few inches higher. He was well built, but not too bulky. He wore a sonic blue karate gi, which split at his navel and made a v up to his shoulders. The border line of the gi was black with red kanji, and underneath the gi was a black shirt. He wore black pants, which were similar to Naruto's in every way except size and color. Naruto, looking up, saw the forehead protector on his medium length brown hair which had a symbol which Naruto had never seen.

"I-I'm Uzumaki Naruto. What hidden village are you from with that headband?" Naruto again looked at the headband. To Naruto, it looked like a figure eight turned on it's side, encased in a rectangle.

"This symbol represents my organization, not any hidden village. However, it's not an organization like the underground ones who seek power and money. My organization, called suutagakure, is composed of those who come from any of the hidden villages, and decided to become unaffiliated with all of them. So, tell me, are you a ninja?" Soujuro explained.

"No. I'm just an academy student that can't even pass the genin exam," At the mention of this, Naruto put his head into his hands, and Soujuro smiled knowingly.

"Well, you must be half-way decent if you could steal the forbidden scroll I found you with. Well, anyways, I should let you go. You seem to be on your own path and I shouldn't interrupt. I'll give you some food for your journey, wherever it may lead you," Soujuro left the room, and shut the door behind him.

**A few hours later!**

Naruto was about a mile from Soujuro's house, heading in the direction he hoped to be north-west. He stopped on a tree branch, and pulled out a map and a compass, but for some reason his compass would not point in any one direction. He shook it, and before he could take another look, he was blasted into a tree by a bolt of lightning.

Thinking fast, Naruto dropped the map, compass, and his backpack, keeping a hold of the scroll, and pulled out a kunai to face his attacker. His face fell when he saw three lightning nins facing him, smirks present on their faces.

"Hey, brat, hand over that scroll on your back and we might not kill you!" the first nin threatened, earning a laugh from his comrades.

"I will never hand this over to you! It's not your to take from someone else!" Naruto sounded vicious, but the scared look on his face showed otherwise.

"I'll have you know that we're lightning chuunin, brat! If you don't hand it over, we'll just kill you and take it off of your dead body!" the first ninja formed a few hand seals before holding out his hands, "Here's my strongest move, Raikyū no Jutsu!"

A ball of pure lightning flew towards Naruto, and hit him in the right shoulder as he tried to dodge, sending him back into the trunk of the tree. Blood ran down the side of his jacket, but he stood back up.

"I won't take back what I said! That's my way of the ninja! I'll fight you with everything I have left!" Naruto tried to move, but couldn't because the pain was so unbearable, 'I guess this is it' he thought.

"As if you could! Raikyū no Jutsu, hit him again!" Another ball of lightning hit Naruto, this time in the leg. The ninja fired and fired again until Naruto lay on the ground beneath the tree unconscious, and nearly dead. "It's time to finish this, I guess," the nameless ninja throws a kunai at Naruto's body, only to find it was destroyed in midair, "What the hell?!"

"You shouldn't harm others for your own good," Soujuro was the man from which the voice came, and he landed right between the lightning troop and Naruto. "I won't give you a chance to explain, but finish this with one of your own attacks! Rairyū no Tatsumaki!" A vortex of painful lightning emitted from Soujuro's hand, and the lightning nin were all killed by it, one by one. The ninja who attacked Naruto was the last one alive, eyes wide in terror, only saying one thing before he died.

"That kid has some damn powerful allies," escaped from his lips before the lightning struck his head, killing him instantly. Soujuro turned around to face the unconscious shinobi laying on the ground.

"Hmm. 'I won't take back what I said! That's my way of the ninja!', eh? Sounds so much like him. Uzumaki Naruto, I've decided. From this day forward, I am going to teach you to become the best ninja you can be!"

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Naruto woke from his pain induced coma to find himself back in the white room, only this time the window was closed as it was raining outside. Naruto, unlike last time, was too tired to explore and stayed in bed, hoping Soujuro would come to him, instead. After about ten minutes of resting his eyes, Naruto was awoken when Soujuro entered the room.

"Hey, kid, congratulations on finally waking up. I have something to tell you, so get dressed and meet me in the main room," Soujuro hastily explained before exiting, and shutting the door. Naruto complied to his wishes, albeit slowly, and made his way to the main room in 10 minutes.

"Hey Soujuro-san, so what did you need to tell me?" Naruto, being incredibly tired, almost drifted off to sleep during his own sentence. Catching himself, he opened his eyes wide to hear what his two time rescuer had to say.

"Well, after that fight with the lightning nin, I had a thought. After the thought, I decided that, starting today, you are going to train under me. I don't care if you don't want to, because I am going to train you no matter how you feel about this. Got it?" Naruto nodded, and Soujuro motioned to the ground in front of him. "Those are some weights. Put them on. You'll find they don't weigh much right now, but if you charge them with chakra, they will weigh whatever you want them too. There is a limit to 500 pounds per weight, but I doubt you'll really need to care about that," After that was said, Naruto slipped on the four weight bands on his wrists and ankles, and pumped a little bit of chakra into them. After stumbling a bit, he found it wasn't so bad.

"How much should I pump in? I don't know how to really work it," Naruto looked to his new sensei for answers, and Soujuro simply walked in, and put his hand on each weight and pumped in his own chakra. Naruto immediately felt a difference, and struggled to stay standing. "How much did you make them weigh?!" Naruto demanded.

"They're only twenty pounds apiece. Don't worry, though, tomorrow I'll make it feel even worse. For now, I want you to show me what you can do. Let's go outside."

After a day of work out and a night of peaceful rest, Naruto got up at 0630 to an alarm clock, got up, got dressed, and ate. At 0700 he walked outside to find his sensei standing their, waiting for him.

"Today, Naruto, you will not be training any ninja skill. Today, I just want you to be able to walk by the end of the day. I need you to take off your shirt and sit on this log, and face away from me." Naruto did as he was told, and he felt a strange tingling on his back. Soujuro had put chakra into his fingertips and drawn a strange seal along the two sides of Naruto's spine.

"Soujuro-sensei, what did you do? And why doesn't it feel any dif-" Naruto regretted what he said when he tried to take a step. He immediately fell into an uncomfortable position on the ground, and could not move at all. "Sou..juro…-sensei…what…?"

**This next big paragraph you were about to skip is important albeit long and eye straining.**

"The seal I just placed on you is called a gravity seal. It tricks your mind into thinking it weighs much more than it does. Because of this, your body will continue to grow faster and stronger like you were under that much weight. This way, when you release the seal with a simple 'kai' then you will be much faster. However, the incredibly special thing about the gravity seal is its level system. Your gravity seal is on level one at the moment, which is the lowest. You can change your gravity seal level, but I will tell you how some other time. Basically, if you are on level 1, it doubles the weight on your body. Level two triples, level three quadruples, and etcetera. Now, for training uses, you are not to remove this seal. Only in incredibly challenging fights that you can not win otherwise and are in peril do I permit you to release the gravity seals. The weights are less crucial, but try not to release those unless in a challenging fight. Now, your task of today is to be able to walk ten meters without falling over! When you feel like, with the gravity seals, you can walk completely normal and feel like you used to walk before getting the seals, then increase to level 2. I don't expect this for at least a year, so don't be disappointed if you don't get there too quickly. Now, when you make it inside, I'll be reading. See you then."

Finished this chapter...I would make it longer, but this is a perfect time to stop, it's 2 AM, and I don't want to set huge barriers for the rest of my chapters by making the first one huge. Anyways, leave some reviews, hope you liked the first chapter.


	2. Balad of Akatsuki

Hey guys, it's Trake again, coming back to you for the next new great chapter of my Naruto story, "Of Mice and Men" hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Anyways, on with the story. And, for some reason my page breaks didn't show up ;; so I'll have to think of something new.

Like this!

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It has been eight months since Naruto has begun his training with Soujuro. Naruto has progressed rapidly, and has mastered many jutsus. He is much more fit to be a ninja now than he was before. In the beginning of his training, Soujuro taught Naruto how to do deal with his gravity seals, and how to use the simple jutsu like kawarimi and bunshin no jutsus. After he was finished with these, he trained Naruto in charka control and charka capacity, and worked on his taijutsu while wearing the weights and having the gravity seals active. This took a little more than a month, before Soujuro brought Naruto into his previously hidden basement.

(_flashback_)

"Naruto, do you see those scrolls on the far wall? Every single one of those contains one or two of the jutsus that I know. I would like for you to start mastering them, but first look in the scroll that you brought with you. Learn those, and come back to me when you are done."

(_end flashback_)

Naruto learned the three techniques in the scroll with relative ease, and came back to Soujuro in one week. From there, Soujuro introduced Naruto to the elements, and taught him the basics. Naruto excelled in wind, and was pretty good in lightning, whereas everything else was just about average level. In the next five months, Soujuro taught Naruto every wind type move he knew, along with every lightning type and a few of the other types. After Naruto mastered everything he could, Soujuro said that Naruto was ready, and they sparred 16 hours a day, every day, had one hour combined for eating (and the occasional bathroom break) and slept for seven hours. We arrive right now, two months after they started this routine, outside of Soujuro's house in the field.

"Naruto, I think you're ready to move on to the second level of your gravity seals. You mastered the first level faster than I thought you could, and now look where you are! Before you advance to the next level, I need to give you a couple quick tests. First, jump as high as you can," Naruto complied to Soujuro's request instantly, and jumped almost 60 feet in the air. "Good, you've got that down. Now, lift up this boulder," He pointed at a large boulder next too him that was almost as tall as he was and just as wide, "and carry it over to the tree line."

Naruto walked over to the boulder, and, after some confusion as to how to get his hands under it, struggled a bit but managed to lift the boulder. Then, with much more ease than the earlier feat, carried the boulder over to the tree line and dropped it.

"Good, you pass. Now, to increase your gravity seals to level two, I'm going to do it for you, but after I do it your body will remember how I did it and you'll be able to do it by yourself!" Soujuro walked up to Naruto, who was sitting on a stump, and put two fingers to his head. Soujuro's fingers began to glow, before Soujuro encountered something strange.

"**Hey, you, human, what are you doing in here? How dare you impugn on my sleep! I'd have eaten you if I wasn't trapped in this god-forsaken brat!**" A growl and two menacing eyes in front of him notified Soujuro that this thing that was talking to him wasn't Naruto conscience.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in Naruto's body? I'm quite sure Naruto didn't mention anything about being a jinkuurichi," Soujuro stated, although he already knew now that Naruto must have held secrets even he didn't know about.

"**I am the great nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune! I've been trapped in this kid for 13 years because of the fourth Hokage who sealed me in this infernal boy!**" Kyuubi was growing noticeably angrier with every word he spoke, and Soujuro backed away quickly.

"Well, you know, as much as I'd like to stay, I only came here to increase this kids gravity seals. For now, you should take a look at your container's skills; he is becoming more and more powerful every day. Actually, I'm in a good mood, I think I'll give you a rare opportunity," Soujuro walked up to the cage the Kyuubi was in and touched the seals with chakra in his fingertips, and altered it. "There, now you can communicate directly with Naruto. Talk to him sometime, he seems very lonely."

With that, Soujuro removed his fingers from Naruto's forehead, and the gravity seals on his back spread further along his back. Naruto again fell to the ground, and could not move.

"Same thing as last time kid, when you make it inside you can have a break the rest of the day. For now, I have a mission from my organization, something about an Orochimaru fellow that I am supposed to check out. I'll be gone a few days, but you should be training while I am gone. See you later, kid." Soujuro jumped past the tree line and was gone in minutes, while Naruto lay stiff on the ground without moving at all.

"Man, this is even harder than last time. Although, I guess it should be because my weights are all almost 50 pounds now. Well, time to get to work." Naruto crawled about one foot after ten minutes and decided it was hopeless, before a voice startled him.

"**Hah, that man tells me my vessel is getting stronger and all I've seen you do is crawl slowly across that ground. Come on you ingrate stand up and walk, it's not that hard.**" Kyuubi prodded Naruto from inside with a bit of charka and Naruto visibly flinched.

"Who the hell are you? And where are you? I can hear you and sense your charka, but I can't see you at all!"

"**Wow, weak and stupid too. I'm the Kyuubi, brat, and you can't see me 'cause I'm sealed in your body!**"

"What?! But…the Kyuubi was killed by the Fourth, everyone knows that."

"**Look brat, that man couldn't kill me if I was blindfolded and stood stock still. Instead, he used this cheap trick to seal me into you! And by the way, you don't have to talk out loud for me to hear you, I'm inside you I can hear your thoughts.**"

'Oh. Well, I guess that's not horrible, but is that why all the villagers hated me? I could never understand why I had no friends, but I guess it's because all the parents thought I was a demon…' Naruto sulked on the ground, but continued to slowly inch forward.

"**Yeah, well, we'll just kill them all eventually, ok? For now, you're pathetic. Hurry up and get used to this weight so I can start to train you.**" At this Naruto's eyes got wide, and then he smiled a bit.

'You're really going to train me? That's amazing, being trained by both you and Soujuro-sensei will help be even stronger! Thanks fox.' And, for the next few hours, the fox watched as Naruto inched, crawled, and eventually walked the last few feet into Soujuro's house before falling onto a couch in amazement. Looking at the table in front of him, Naruto saw an object of relative unimportance normally, but at the moment it had a note over it from Soujuro-sensei.

_"Congratulations on making it inside, Naruto. Since I will be gone for the next few days, maybe even a week, I have left you this weapon to train with. There are some scrolls in the basement that will help you learn how to use it. Good luck, my apprentice."_

Naruto looked quizzically at the object. It looked to him like a bottle opener, except the serrated edges came on the outside of the object.

(For anyone wondering, this particular object looks like this basically: -- and the serrated blades would be on the outside of the v shaped part instead of on the inside(If part of that image doesn't show up, it looks like (dash)(dash)(less-than symbol)))

"What is this?" Naruto asked himself mostly, but the answer still came.

"**That is a wind-type weapon. It's like a giant fan for wind, but compacted. If I am right, which I always am, that one is the legendary _Black Sickle_ that the second Kazekage used during the great ninja war. I wonder how that man got a hold of it,**" Kyuubi mused.

Naruto walked downstairs with it, and fetched the scrolls before returning upstairs to read through them. After getting any hand seal or chakra amount down, he jogged outside and used them, one after another. They weren't that hard to master, but with his current skill at them they probably weren't as powerful as they should be. After a few hours of exhausting work, he ran to his room, closed the door, and fell straight into a deep sleep.

'**Heh, this kid really is something. He didn't even notice that in only one day he can already sprint with the second level of gravity seals on. Then, he goes and gets a legendary weapon, and can now use all of its techniques. This kid is either a genius, or incredibly determined. Also, I can feel that he has an evil presence in the bottom of his heart from how the villagers treated him. Something tells me that this is going to be an interesting life.**' And with that, the great fox falls asleep as well.

Over the next few days, Kyuubi taught Naruto all about his true gifts as an Uzumaki and a Jinkuurichi. Naruto finds out through his heritage that the Fourth was his father, and that his father was the last Uzumaki alive aside from Naruto himself. He was then enlightened about the only bloodline limit that could only be unlocked by the user through hate and despair. Kyuubi decided that Naruto had enough of that, even if he didn't know it, and activated Naruto's bloodline limit by sending powerful demon hatred into the boys heart fro a couple of minutes.

After the change was complete, Naruto didn't feel any different, but anyone watching would notice that Naruto's hair had grown out a bit, Naruto had grown a couple of inches, and he had bulked up a little. However, if anyone didn't notice any of that, they would still surely notice his eyes. His eyes, instead of being a bright azure color, were lime green, with five triangular points coming in from the outer iris, coming to a point just outside of his still black pupil.

"**The name of your bloodline limit is the Fuzengan, or Evil Eye. It has many abilities, but you will have to discover them for yourself. For now, I'm going to make you a scroll. I'll have to take over your body for a few, but I won't do anything drastic.**" Kyuubi does just as he said, and makes a scroll for Naruto with three different kinjutsu. After he was finished, he returned to Naruto's body. "**It takes me a lot of strength to take over your body like that, so I'm going to take a nap. Learn those jutsu while I sleep and we wait for that man to return.**" Naruto did just that.

For one week, Naruto learned the first jutsu, and attempted to find the abilities of his Fuzengan. The only ability he found during this time was the ability to see through objects up to a certain distance, although that distance was only about 20 meters it was still useful. He went outside to train today only to find a peculiar unrecognizable man outside of his door. Naruto immediately noticed his forehead protector, which had the same symbol as Soujuro's.

"Who are you and what are you doing in Soujuro-san's house?" The strange man questioned of Naruto.

"I am Soujuro-sensei apprentice, Uzumaki Naruto. Now, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"My name is not important, but I am sorry to say that your sensei, Soujuro-san, was killed by Orochimaru during his last mission. I am here to collect his stuff, but if you are living here then I guess I do not have to."

Naruto's eyes went wide, and he ran out of the house into the forest to think about what he was just told

'Is sensei really…dead? No, I can't believe it, I won't believe it! He was way to strong to die to some random ninja! He said he'd be back, I know he'll be back! He has to come…back…he has to…' Naruto collapsed on a tree branch, and tears began to swell up in his eyes.

"**Kid. Even if he is dead, why cry? Instead, use your rage and power and go kill that fool who killed him! We should go train, become as strong as we can be and go kill that freak!**" Kyuubi cheered him on. '**Of course, then we'll be strong enough and he'll be evil enough to rule…we'll kill everyone! Nothing will stand in our way once he becomes as evil as me!**' The fox thought in the background.

"You're right. Kyuubi, I need you to help me train. I'll become much stronger than that Orochimaru freak, and even stronger than sensei. Where should we go to train?"

"**We're going to head off to the Land of the River, a supposedly non-shinobi country that holds the hidden hideouts of most underground organizations. There we will wander until we find an organization worthy of our power. However, to know that you aren't a village shinobi in disguise, you need to find a forehead protector and make a slash mark along its symbol. Got any ideas where to get one?**"

"No…wait, back when I first met sensei, he saved me from some lightning ninja, and saved the forehead protectors. Maybe he still has them! Let's get back to his house and check it out."

When they reached Soujuro's house, the man from earlier was gone, and Naruto descended the stairs to the secret basement. He opened the door in the room he hadn't gone into before, only to find a small broom closet lined with forehead protectors from every shinobi he had killed.

"Well, I am most proficient in wind jutsu, so I should probably take one of their forehead protectors if I want to remain undercover. This one looks too new…this one is too beat up…this one is perfect! Time to head out," Naruto finally decided. He took _Black Sickle_ and sliced a line through the wind symbol, before wrapping the forehead protector directly around his eyes, knowing he could see through it anyways.

"**Ok brat, since we're on the border of Grass and Fire, head straight south and we'll come to River Country. Wake me when we arrive.**" And the fox's voice disappeared in a deep sleep.

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After a day and a half of slow paced travel, Naruto arrives in River Country and finds a cave to stay in. After he unpacks his stuff, he finds a few supplies hurriedly left behind by the last traveler.

'I wonder…did he leave when I got here? What's he running from? Maybe I should check it out,' the young shinobi pondered. He immediately took off from the cave, and his instincts guided him in the right direction through the forests. When he reached a large clearing, he sees the runaway ninja going a different direction, and he follows him at an increased speed. After avoiding traps the other nin had set, Naruto finally caught up to him, and tackled him off of a branch.

"Who are you?" Naruto questioned the nin.

"What do you mean? If you're from Akatsuki, you should know! Wait…are you even from Akatsuki?"

"No, what's Akatsuki?"

"Hah, yes! I'm still free!" A surprised Naruto was knocked back and the enemy ninja jumped away. Naruto watched as he moved one step, two steps, three steps, and was sliced in half down the middle.

"Aaaaaaaah!!!!" The enemy nin was dead before he hit the ground. Two other ninja's appeared next to him. Both ninja's wore black cloaks with red clouds at random places on the cloak. The one on the left was blue, and looked like a shark with a headband from the hidden village of the mist with a slash through it. The other wore a straw hat over his face, and had a bloody sword drawn.

"Well well, Itachi, look like we got a sand nin who tracked this guy down. What's your name, kid?" The tall Blue one asked.

"U…I don't have a name. What about you two, who are you?" Naruto stuttered, but regained composure sensing these two's amazingly high chakra signatures.

"Hoshigaki Kisame. My partner is Uchiha Itachi," Naruto flinched a bit at his name, wondering why anyone related to Sasuke would become a missing-nin, "and we're members of Akatsuki. Why were you after Aoi over here?"

"I wasn't so much after him as I was curious. I noticed he left some belongings in the cave I was headed to very quickly, and wondered what he was running from. I guess it was you guys, then? What about you, why were you after this guy?"

Itachi was the one to speak this time, "That is none of your concern. However, you seem to be unaffiliated, and a missing nin at the same time, although I doubt if you are actually from the Land of the Wind. How about you join up in Akatsuki's army? Truth to be told, me and Kisame were supposed to be finding people to be in our particular squad, but you're the first missing nin we've run across."

"Akatsuki…why should I join? What do you guys do?"

"Well, everything really. Our leader sends us off on certain missions, we don't know much about it all but we certainly get enough money for it. So what do ya say? If you try it out and don't like it, that's alright, you can just quit. Of course, if you do, we'll have to kill you, but it's no big deal for us." Kisame replied, a smirk coming to his face.

"Hah, sounds like you guys aren't real friendly with your disciples. But, I'm actually quite curious about this Akatsuki. I was planning on joining some sort of organization, running around by myself isn't all that it's cracked up to be." Naruto agreed.

"Fine, follow us. We'll get you your uniform today and give you a quick tour of the place. It's not too luxurious, but you learn to like it."

After a little over an hour of travel, the three landed next to a big boulder at a river. They looked around, and after confirming no one was there, Kisame walked up to the seal on the boulder and placed his ring against it.

"Kai!" Kisame backed away as the boulder split to reveal a huge cavern entrance. "This is the entrance hall…not really important, but any tournaments or ranking battles are held here. Come on, We got to get you checked up with the leader."

They walked through a set of wooden doors to find what Naruto called a throne room, with another person sitting on a high throne in the middle, wearing the same cloak as Kisame and Itachi.

"Who's this brat? Did you guys finally pick someone out for your squad?" the man had his face hidden by a half golden half silver theatrical mask with ornate designs on each side and two eye holes. The silver half was frowning, the gold half smiling.

"He doesn't have a name; he's a missing nin who wishes to join us. He tracked down Aoi before we could. We decided we should finally make a squad. Alright with you?"

"Fine. We'll call him…Hitokage(Soul). Get him to a room. You're dismissed." With that, Kisame and Itachi bowed, and Naruto soon followed. They got up, turned around, and left the room.

"Ok, kid, we're getting you a room in G pod. That's my pod, and it also contains the training room. Other things of interest, the scroll room is in B pod, Itachi's room is in D pod, and the library is also in D pod. The pool is in E pod, and finally our squad room is in F pod. We'll meet in F pod tomorrow at 0700 hours ok? Good." While they were talking, they had reached Naruto's room, Kisame went right after that, and Itachi turned around and went back the way they came.

"So…I've got time to explore. But, I think I might just rest it out, no use in wasting all my energy now." And with that, Naruto went to sleep. Little did he know, the next four months would be harsh at best.

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**Four months later**

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"Hito, we have your first mission as squad leader. Ready for it?" Itachi had begun to use Naruto's nickname a lot, and sometimes Naruto would forget that it was his name. After four months, Itachi and Kisame had gathered four more missing nins who would serve under Naruto, and they stood right in front of him.

On the right was a twenty year old missing nin from the mist who had green hair tied back in a ponytail, along with a thick scar along his left eye. The next one was a female from Cloud who had black hair and a nasty attitude. Standing straight and tall was the strongest of the four under Naruto, who was another missing Cloud nin who was about 16. His short spiked red hair was covered at the moment by his straw hat. The last nin was the only nin not from one of the top five shinobi nations, another black haired kid from Star Country.

"Your mission is relatively simple. Go to the chuunin exam finals and find Sabaku no Gaara. Sound is planning an invasion of Konoha, and that kid is a jinkuurichi. Make sure he lives. If he dies, our plan to gather all of the tailed beasts will fail completely. You are dismissed, leave immediately. Hitokage will be leading this mission. Oh, and if you see the other living Uchiha…Uchiha Sasuke, tell him his dear older brother says hello." Itachi formed a tiger seal in his right hand and disappeared.

"Well, you guys get your gear together and meet me in the entrance hall in 30 minutes. We'll move out immediately. I don't want to miss any of the action." Naruto smirked beneath his cloak and donned his straw hat. All that you could see of him between the cloak and the hat was his slashed forehead protector covering his eyes.

He headed back to his room quickly, and rearmed himself with kunai, shurikens, and the _Black Sickle_. He placed an empty scroll, some wire, and a few explosive notes in there as well. As a last thought, he slipped the ring he got for being a squad leader on his left middle finger. He looked at his room, and turned toward the exit. He found his way to the library and grabbed a copy of his favorite book and shoved it into his cloak. When he made it to the entrance hall, his squad had just finished gathering.

"Alright, you were all earlier than I expected. Now, we were given this mission as our first because none of us are from Sound or Leaf. This means there is to be no sentiment about killing. We're here for a purpose and we aren't going to let our feelings get in the way. Now, we're heading straight east to hit the Konoha dome. We are not to reveal ourselves in any way, so no fighting at all, got it? Good. Now move out!" All of his squad members dashed over his head out the exit and he followed right behind them as they headed to the former home of their squad leader without even knowing it.

Alright, second chapter done! I might be writing less from now on, I was hoping for like one chapter per day, but this was over the weekend so I can't really promise anything during school. However, I hope to get at least two more chapters out during the week, and next week is break so I'll have plenty of time to write. Review and let me know what you think!

-Trake


	3. Fortè!

Chapter 3 – Cut Time

This is totally chapter three. Dawg. Don't own Naruto, and thank god cause that would be a hassle.

* * *

Naruto sort of figured that going in the front gate wouldn't quite cut it for a covert operation, so he had planned a few other entrances. Of course, not being in a place for almost a year makes it slightly more difficult to enter unseen. Luckily, Naruto's old hidey-hole had proven incredibly useful for the second time, and, using a simple earth jutsu, he was able to fit himself, and then the rest of his team quietly into Konohagakure, the land of the leaf.

Going it alone would have been Naruto's preferred method of travel, as he was a loner by nature given no one had ever seemed to want to be around him. Being a jinchuuriki did that to people. Most of the common folk didn't want anything to do with a boy who had a huge overly powerful demon stuck in their stomach. Of course, in Naruto's mind, it didn't matter as now he would not give the time of day to any of those people even if they asked for it.

Passing by Ichiraku's under a strong genjutsu, Naruto resisted the urge to leave some money behind for the old man ramen chef. It was him who kept Naruto alive during the not-so-good and the worse times. Unfortunately, that could arise suspicion amongst his teammates, which could lead to his unfortunate end. Although he was definitely the strongest amongst his squad, he very highly doubted he could take on all four at once.

Finally, they arrived at the stadium, and split up immediately to avoid detection. Naruto had volunteered to take the furthest route around to their destination (a rooftop in the stands, across from the Kage booth. On the way he had the added bonus of scoping out the competitors. One Sabaku no Gaara, the target of this 'protective' mission was obviously present, just by the sense of a medium killer intent at all times. Others in the competition included Uchiha Sasuke, the bitter and selfish little brother of Itachi; Inuzuka Kiba, one of the few people to still hold a spot on Naruto's friends list, along with another spot holder, Nara Shikamaru; the indifferent yet strangely respectful Aburame Shino; the rest, a mystery to Naruto.

Naruto finally arrived on the roof, and turned to his Akatsuki counterparts, each under a genjutsu of their own.

"Looks like we got here just in time. The first three matches are unimportant. Remember, after Gaara's fight, in which we assume he'll turn to the one-tail's power, we should be looking for attacking sound nins and sand nins. I'll split up assignments based on what I see fit when that happens. Be on your toes," said Naruto, remaining somewhat calm. In truth he was quite nervous. Despite all the training he had been through to keep his emotions under raps, it was his first real mission, and he felt he had the right to be anxious, at least a little.

"We know already Hitokage-_sama_. It's not like we'd forget when you just told us four minutes ago." These words came from the oldest and most experienced of the group, Tor, a twenty year old missing ninja from Mist. Although he was sarcastic and disrespectful most of the time, he was still quite loyal and a good ally to have in battle.

Next to him sat Saix, the strongest and most boisterous of the group. He had removed his straw hat but his purple eyes and red spiky hair were separated by the cloud headband on his forehead. It, like all the others in their group, had a horizontal slash through it.

"You should be nicer to Hito-sama, Tor, we all know he could rip you in half in an instant." This response came from the cunning female of the group, Nel. Her dark black hair matched her dark attitude towards just about everyone, and it was common of her to make this kind of statement just to turn around and glare at Naruto. She wore a similar cloud headband, but sewn into her hat.

"Shut up guys, I'm interested in this match. The guy on the left is a Hyuuga. Who knows what could happen in a match like this." Coming from Blayn this was not a surprise. He may not have been the strongest, but he was definitely the smartest, and that was the kind of guy you needed to watch the fights. His plain messy black hair reminded Naruto a bit of seeing Shikamaru without his topknot when they were younger. His Star headband was worn without any pride on his left arm, underneath his cloak.

"It'll be boring. The fight's already been going on for a few minutes, and all the Hyuuga's done is talk. Bet that Inuzuka kid'll attack in a few seconds, but get knocked right back down." This came from Saix, his first words of the day, as he seemed preoccupied by something else.

It was almost exactly as he had said. After getting knocked down once, however, the Inuzuka stood back up and charged with his gatsuuga, but in the end it wasn't enough as the Hyuuga sealed off his chakra.

The next fights continued much in the same way. An interesting thing occurred when one kid had a girl in a complete trap, but surrendered saying it was too much work. The moment was ruined, however, when the next competitor surrendered before the fight even started. Finally, it was Gaara's battle, verse the infamous Uchiha Sasuke.

"This…will be an interesting battle." This came surprisingly from Naruto, who never talked past giving out orders and disciplining those who didn't follow them.

The battle went by pretty quickly, but as the end drew near for Sasuke, Gaara suddenly went on the defensive, and wrapped himself into a large sphere of sand.

"Shit. Tor, see that eyeball forming up there? Destroy it discretely, before anyone notices it." The eldest of the group did just that, with a small amount of water erupting from the inside of the eye. "That signifies his use of the Ichibi, however doing so would make him actually transform into it, giving it complete freedom. We cannot afford that."

Gaara came out of his sphere, confusion on his face, as Sasuke ran down upon him, lightning in hand. Gaara command the sand to instead surround Sasuke, and Sasuke wasted his chidori breaking out. Before any more fighting could commence between the two genin, however, a jounin Naruto knew as Baki appeared next to Gaara, and the jounin pair from leaf who had refereed the fights. The first jounin fired off a senbon from his mouth at Baki, and, after a spasm of coughing, the second jounin followed closely with a kunai. The arena genin went their separate ways, Sasuke flying over to Kakashi, whom Naruto could only assume was his jounin sensei, and Gaara running off with the two others from sand towards the forest.

"You four. See the kage box? The sand Kage…is not the real Kazekage. You should go after him, he may be the mastermind. I'm afraid sand is in on this attack, as well, so I'm going to go into the forest and fight the sound nins while you deal with the rest here. Protect the Hokage, he can be a valuble asset as there are no Jinchuuriki currently in Konoha. I'll follow Gaara. Go!" With that, Naruto flew off into the forest, following Sasuke closely as he tailed the sand nins.

Stopping at a crooked tree, Sasuke took a right and went about one hundred yards, and followed after Gaara again. Naruto soon found out why, as he ran into the female of the sand group who had apparently been sent back to stop Sasuke.

"I don't know who you are, but you're gonna have to get past me first if you want to get to Gaara!" The kunoichi growled as she un-strapped the large fan from her back.

"Ah, feisty. I like that in a woman, but I'm afraid there is no time for chitchat." Throwing all caution to the wind, Naruto reached into his cloak and pulled out the _Black Sickle_ and aimed it at the girl. Throwing his arm back, he yelled, "End game!" and launched a small tunnel of raging winds at the girl, missing her by a foot but tearing her fan to pieces. "It's over. Give up now, I'm going to save Gaara."

"You won't get…wait, save him? Don't be silly, nothing can hurt Gaara!"

"Then what are you protecting him from?" His last words echoed in her mind as he disappeared, flying at speeds much faster than before, towards the fight. He passed an area carefully, where the puppet master of the sand trio and the leaf genin, Shino, from the tournament were fighting. Needing no distractions, he only went one thousand yards further, to find find Sasuke and Gaara fighting.

Sasuke was covered with black tattoos, and the Gaara kid was covered halfway in sand, making him look terribly like a monster. Sasuke was holding his own well enough, but it was obvious he was losing, and his pride was hurt in a much more un-repairable way than his body.

"Stop." It wasn't a shout, or a whisper, but it was the kind of low volume command few people had the will to ignore. Unfortunately, neither of these two fighters had this will, and turned to face him. "Sabaku no Gaara, you are a danger to yourself and this village. You are to cease fighting this instant." With a powerful chop to the back of his neck, Gaara lay on the ground, semi-conscious. "And you…you are Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"Your brother told me to say 'hi'" He turned to go, but quickly turned back to deflect three shuriken headed for vital points on his body.

"Who are you?! What do you know about that man?" Sasuke exclaimed, the red in his eyes burning stronger, and the malice in his cursed seal growing more powerful.

"Hahaha…so you planned to kill the only source of information? You don't even deserve it…but, I will tell you one thing. If you are maybe, half as strong as this Gaara fellow when he is halfway transformed, and Gaara is maybe, a fourth as strong as me in that state, then…Itachi is a thousand times as strong as me. I dare you to try and match his power. However, as he might tell you…hate and rage aren't really the real motivators for power. No one is truly as powerful as they are when protecting something important to them. Remember that. By the way, you were asking for a name? I won't tell you directly…but you can tell any of your jounin, or even your precious Hokage that Kyuubi came calling. They might tell ya. Bye now." Removing his forehead protector, he activated the second ability of his Fuzengan; hypnosis. Sasuke fell of the branch he was standing on, and Naruto turned to leave. Gaara, however, would have another say in things.

"Mother…Mother wants your blood…oh yes, and she will have it…" Gaara's half-transformation soon became a full transformation as he rose to the height of mountains on top of a raccoons head.

"Well. That doesn't look to healthy. I guess I've gotta go all out." Taking off his cloak and hat, Naruto stuffed his forehead protector in a common pocket and stared up at Gaara with bright green eyes. Seeing no other way about it, Naruto chose his favorite seal, the ram seal, and concentrated his energies on a single point. Releasing the energy, along with a quick breath of air, the gravity seals shone and as quick as that were gone. "Yeah, this feels about right."

Here stood Naruto, in a pure-black, skin tight shirt and black shorts that came past his knees. In all his glory, it was hard to wonder how hot it would be under all that clothing.

"Hahaha, it's too late for that! Tanuki Neiri no jutsu!(Forced sleep technique…I think)" Gaara cackled, before falling to sleep on top of Shukaku's massive head. The great beast changed in demeanor, from Gaara's mad form to the quirky yet insane beast known as the ichibi.

"Hehehehe, I'm finally free! Free, free at last! Mwahaha, finally!" The great beast failed to notice a small presence dashing straight up it's back, until it landed directly on it's head. The tanuki took a quick swipe, only for Naruto to jump right over.

"End game!" Naruto, pulling out the _Black Sickle_ once again, unleashed a larger torrent of wind blowing straight through the beast's paw.

Quickly re-growing his lost limb, Shukaku tried in vain to stop Naruto again, but it was too late as Naruto landed a powerful blow on Gaara, waking him out of his slumber and sending him crashing through the now tumbling mountain of sand, straight into the forest below.

"It's over, Sabaku no Gaara. Feel glad that we cannot take the tailed beast out of you just yet. However when the time comes…we will find you." Without another word, Naruto grabbed his cloak and his hat, placed them back on his head, and, after forming a single one handed seal, seemed to disappear charging full speed back to Konoha.

* * *

"Blayn, we need to get going. Hito-sama is right, this Hokage could be a valuable asset to Akatsuki. As much as I hate to admit it, we gotta listen to that fruit." Tor could not have deemed it more clearly that he did not like Naruto, or Hito as Akatsuki knows him. However, Tor was the third in command, and even when Naruto was gone, Saix held power over him. As it was, Saix was the first to respond.

"You're right, and we'd better hurry. It looks as though it's about to begin," Saix was dead serious, but there was no telling why. It did not seem like he would tell them any time soon.

"Wait. We should go under the genjutsu. Even if they are kage level, they'd have to be looking right for us in order for our jutsu to be seen through." Coming from the tactics expert of Blayn, it would not have been surprising, but the suggestion came from the least tactical of them all, Nel.

And so, they set off for the roof that sat Orochimaru, the sound Four, and of course, the Sandaime Hokage himself.

On the roof…

"So, Orochimaru, you've finally come back," said Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage.

"Yes, and this time one of us will die. Given that I have my immortality jutsu, I guarantee it will be you!" Orochimaru licked his lips, and peeled off the mask of his former self, revealing a more masculine, although still rather feminine face. His wussy retard-robe, done all up with a large pretzel bow of purple rope on his back, did nothing to help his masculinity.

"So you've been preparing this whole time to kill me? Here I thought it looked like you were just preparing to come out of the closet. Or did you just assume everyone already knew you were gay? Because, you know, _we did_. It was quite obvious, really." Sarutobi heard a small gasp come from behind Orochimaru, but assumed it as the wind, and continued the stare down with his one time pupil. Suddenly, Orochimaru's two cohorts turned into four, who surrounded the whole roof before quickly enclosing the whole rooftop in a purple barrier.

"Sorry Sarutobi-_sensei_, it seems this is the end. Now die, like the pitiful old man you are!" Orochimaru formed handseals with the speed of a master, and launched a stream of white-hot fire at the Hokage, and with a dead on hit, the sandaime melted to the ground.

'Mud clone?! Hah, like you could fool me with my own technique!' letting a sneer adorn his face, Orochimaru barely dodged the roof tile shuriken sent his way from all directions.

"I may be old, but I will never die to the likes of you! Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu(Dragon Fire Technique)!" Spitting a larger and more impressive blast of white hot fire back at Orochimaru, he secretly followed it up with his favorite technique, "Doton Doryuudan no Jutsu(Earth Dragon Technique)." He whispered beneath his breath.

"Like this will stop me! Kuchiyose, Triple Rashomon no Jutsu(Triple Rashomon Summoning Technique)!" The white hot fire scorched the first gate, and the hidden earth dragon crashed through it, only for it to crumble to pieces on the second gate, only leaving a small dent.

"Alright old man, I'd like to show you the true power of my greatest technique! Kuchiyose Edo Tensei!(Summoning into an impure world) Behold, the ultimate technique!" Orochimaru's eyes were wide with insanity, his evil grin stretching to unknown proportions. At first, nothing happened, but then two coffins began to rise from the ground, one portraying the number one, the second showing the number two. As they began, the third's eyes widened, and as he tried to stop them, a third coffin started to rise, engraved with the number four. Sarutobi quickly launched tons of shuriken and kunai at the last coffin, causing it to sink back into the roof.

'Damn, if that last one had finished rising…I would stand no chance, and as it is the odds are still low, if those coffins contain what I think they do. This is no time for mistakes!' As his thoughts were on those lines, it came as a huge surprise to see two dead bodies fall out of the coffins, the two bodies of the sound genin from the exam.

"What…I…I don't understand! What's going on?! The technique is prefect, what went wrong?" Orochimaru screeched into the night, only for an answer from very close behind him.

"You fool Orochimaru; I can't believe you haven't noticed yet. You see, the fundamentals of this technique require arms, which you seem to be quite short on at the moment." As Orochimaru turned to view the mysterious spectator, his vision was blocked by a sudden spray of blood from the place where his arms were attached at one point in time.

"Aaahh…arrrggh! You…you're from Akatsuki! I'll get you some day! I'll kill you all! Sound Four, we retreat for now! I'll kill you another day Sarutobi!" Upon the retreat, the Akatsuki member, still holding Orochimaru's arms, turned his gaze on the sole female member of the Sound Four as she passed by.

"Nice job Saix, he totally wasn't expecting it! Good thing he wasn't actually, because you know you'd be ripped to shreds easily. He's way stronger than you! By the way, I saw that look you gave that girl. Got a little crush, do we?" Nel poking fun at Saix was a bit of a test on her part, the second tactical thing she had done that day.

"Oi, shut up before I take your arms too! And for you're information I would not have been 'torn to shreds' as you put it! I'm not second-in-command for nothin'!" Yup, Saix was back to his original, loud mouth self, that was for sure.

"Uh-huh, second-in-command behind Hito, who's second behind Itachi and Kisame, who're second to leader. That's real impressive." Nel shot back, both getting into yet another heated argument over useless things.

"You know, I know you both out rank me, but I'm gonna say that revealing all of that in front of a possible enemy was…hmm what's the word…not smart? Naw, too lenient…ah yes 'completely retarded', that's what I was looking for." Blayn pulling a smart-ass comment out of nowhere was another common event, and almost always it was completely truthful as well.

"Ah, don't mind me. I'll just mind my own business over here while you talk about the inter-workings of an S-class criminal organization right next to me. I won't be a hindrance, I hope?" Sarutobi did this more for kicks than anything, assuming that no ninja would be dumb enough to take that seriously.

"Alright, down to business here Hokage. We want a loose alliance with you, although it's only loose cuz it's a spur of the moment thing. See, Hito was sort of like 'Oh by the way sandaime's fine in my book' and left us to deal with it. We were sort of hoping we could be pals because Konoha doesn't have a j-…er, one of the things we're looking for. In return, we can help you guys out with probably the largest and best spy network in the entire world, second only to possibly Jiraiya's, but if combined with his could probably find out anything anywhere, anytime. Also, of course, having a bunch of S-class nin could help a bit, on top of giving you a closer watch on the new Sound Village which will probably be giving you a hard time for a while. So, what do you say?" Saix tried saying that whole explanation in one breath, but failed miserably. Meanwhile, the Hokage looked thoughtful.

"Well…I guess it couldn't hurt. However, no offense meant, you are a criminal organization. I will be giving you at max the information a genin is capable of getting, until I see fit that you are trustworthy enough for more. Deal?"

"Deal. Cya later Sandaime-san." With that he began to dash away.

"Good bye, second-in-command-san!" With a light chuckle, the sandaime hokage of Konohagakure walked down the roof towards the ANBU platoon waiting on the edge.

* * *

"Hey, how'd the mission go Hito? Er, Hito-sama!" Saix, with his lax attitude, still knew when to show respect to Naruto.

"Fine. Talked to the Uchiha brat, beat up a weak tailed demon, you know. Nothing big. What about here?"

"Konoha really is as strong as they say. A full on assault from another of the great five nations, along with another ninja village, and the casualties were low. The sound shinobi were driven back, while the sand shinobi came to an agreement with Konoha, seeing as how they had been deceived since the beginning. The sandaime is also save, and we have come to a loose alliance agreement. That is all Hito-sama." Saix contained his humor within himself for the time being, strictly business when it came to Naruto's reports.

"Fine. Team, good job, a mission completed with absolutely no casualties of any kind. Let's head home, I'm pretty tired." The other four jumped off towards the Akatsuki base, but Naruto stayed behind, and turned his head towards the giant gates of Konoha. 'To think, I could have lived such a peaceful life in there. Hah, too late for that. We'll meet again, Konohagakure. You can count on it!'

* * *

Yeah, I guess it's been awhile, you can complain if you like. Thanks for the reviews and the alert ads and stuff, at least I know people read this thing. I might write another chapter, I might not. Depends. I'm thinking about writing a story about Naruto and the gang getting involved in tennis. Maybe. Anyways bye for now. For some reason this chapter is still short even though it's 8 pages long :( intense. 


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